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Here is the improved translation incorporating the expert suggestions:

In an instant, everyone began to despair.

When the Red Bone River began to churn unnaturally, Ning Yuzhou swiftly grabbed Wen Qiao and his father.

Holding one in each hand, he looked up toward the river's surface, his gaze piercing through the crimson waters to the Fallen Dragon flying toward them.

The river continued to churn, making it impossible for anyone to stand steadily.

The Fallen Dragon's aura finally appeared above the Red Bone River, its sinister and frigid presence making everyone's faces pale. Their bodies stiffened as the chilling energy corroded them.

It was as if they had been frozen by some spell—locked in their poses, rigidly bobbing in the river.

Chapter 402

"I-It... it's coming!"

A trembling voice rang out, and the cultivators in the river were nearly scared to death.

The Fallen Dragon's crushing pressure had enveloped the entire river, making everyone feel completely exposed to its awareness with no escape.

This intensified their despair. The Fallen Dragon shouldn't have returned at this time—why had it suddenly come back?

Under the dragon's overwhelming pressure, the cultivators' protective barriers flickered and collapsed, leaving their bodies instantly wrapped in the pervasive crimson waters, scorching their skin painfully.

The Fallen Dragon moved swiftly. Before anyone could react, it plunged into the river from above.

Despite the layers of red water separating them, everyone seemed to see its horrifying dragon jaws lunging toward them. Its ashen-white body radiated a sinister, malevolent aura, like some nightmare creature.

Roar—

The Fallen Dragon opened its jaws and let out a dragon's roar, churning the waters even more violently. Everyone could only be tossed about with the currents.

"Move! It's coming—what now?!"

Yan Chuyao shrieked, clutching Leng Yi's arm tightly as she glared at Wen Yi not far away.

Under the Fallen Dragon's pressure, she too could no longer maintain her protective barrier. The red waters burned her skin with waves of agony. She regretted it—had she known, she would never have followed Leng Yi to Red Hill City. If she had stayed in the Valley of Solitude with her father, she wouldn't be in this mess!

Leng Yi couldn't spare her a thought. The river, roiling under the dragon's power, made it impossible to stand firm. He could only drift along with the currents.

He wanted to reach Wen Yi, but the short distance between them might as well have been miles.

Wen Yi stood amidst the surging waters, her hands swiftly working hand signs. Her eyes were slightly closed, her robes billowing in the violent currents. She looked fragile but stood firm, as though the river could not move her an inch.

The Fallen Dragon drew closer, its draconic might making everyone feel death approaching. They could only watch in despair as the churning waters carried them toward the dragon's gaping maw, about to be devoured.

Just as all hope seemed lost, a chilling, unnatural energy suddenly surged from beneath the Red Bone River. The once-turbulent waters abruptly stilled, calming in an instant.

That nerve-wracking presence grew increasingly violent. Everyone felt their bodies freed from the water's embrace, only to be dragged downward by another force.

Then, they all saw it—a black spatial rift had opened beneath the Red Bone River.

No one knew where this spatial tunnel led, but countless sinister energies poured out, making even the river water feel unnatural, causing everyone to shiver uncontrollably.

The Fallen Dragon's gaze shifted toward the spatial rift below.

Its gray eyes, glowing with predatory intensity, flickered before it emitted an earth-shaking roar. The chilling energy spilling from the rift surged toward it, absorbed entirely by the dragon. After devouring the sinister energy, the Fallen Dragon saw the spatial tunnel beginning to close. In a flash, it charged forward, vanishing into the rift just as it sealed shut.

——

As the spatial rift began to swallow them, Wen Qiao immediately seized Ning Yuzhou with one hand and gripped Ning Jichen tightly with the other.

The three clung together as the rift pulled them in.

Once inside, a ghostly chill worse than before invaded their limbs and bones, the kind of cold that felt like it would freeze their very marrow. This wasn’t winter’s bite, but a creeping, unnatural cold that seeped into flesh and bone—something even cultivators could barely endure.

Roar——!!!

The Fallen Dragon, which had followed them into the rift, suddenly threw back its head and unleashed a deafening dragon’s roar.

The sound shook the tunnel, warping the passage itself. The cultivators, already numb with cold, were flung apart by the shockwave before the dimensional currents hurled them violently outward.

Wen Qiao flexed stiff fingers, gritting her teeth against the tearing pain as she held fast to Ning Yuzhou and Ning Jichen.

Then, abruptly, the force dragging them vanished—and the rift spat them out.

They dropped like stones, crashing onto the ground in a heap.

Staggering, heads spinning from the impact, only the Fallen Dragon remained untouched. Hovering mid-air, it bellowed once more before streaking into the distance.

Silence fell after its departure.

Wen Qiao forced herself upright, movements sluggish from the cold. She fished out Blazeheart Pills, swallowing one before pressing others into the hands of Ning Yuzhou and Ning Jichen where they lay nearby.

The pills brought warmth, driving out most of the ghostly chill—though traces lingered, needing to be purged.

“Where is this place?” Ning Jichen asked, voice shaky with dread.

Only then did Wen Qiao survey their surroundings.

Beneath a bleak gray sky stretched a sea of roiling gray fog, where twisted shadows loomed like beasts prowling the mist. They’d landed in a sodden patch of grassland, the grayish vegetation oozing a sickly, unnatural aura—plants fit for a graveyard.

Her mind flashed back: the Fallen Dragon’s return, its gaping maw ready to devour them in the Red Bone River—then the rift yawning open beneath the water, swallowing them whole. Now, spat out into this nightmare, they stood in a world unknown.